OUTGOING: Strawberries

Last month I started writing with Ingrid, whose awesome blog I have been following for ages. We decided to start an abc-snailmail project, which basically means we send eachother themed snailmail following the letters of the alphabet. So, I kicked off the project with the letter A, then Ingrid sends something back with a theme that starts with a B, etcetera. Such an easy idea, but it boosts your creativity like crazy!

Picking a theme with the letter A was easypeasy: the dutch word for strawberries is "aardbeien", my fav summer fruit, so strawberries it was! I was looking forward to trying some new things and materials, let me take you through some pictures of the mini-package I sent her.

Let's start with an overview of my strawberry mail. I like making my own writing sheets, using various kinds of decoration. For this snailmail, I kept it simple with some red and green watercolor and a black fineliner: hello strawberry stationery. Tied together with my all time favorite baker's twine. I also made Ingrid a blank strawberry postcard. I used some scraps of kraft paper and small dots of glue to create a 'weave'-pattern, and on top of that I glued some mini strawberries cut from paper. And then for the red mystery package at the bottom...

...this strawberry garland was inside! These days most of my letters seem to include some kind of crochet project, I can't emphasize how much I love crochet. I cut some strawberries from red paper. Well, at first they looked like a three-year-old's attempt of cutting hearts, but once I drew tiny seeds on them and crocheted the garland and crowns the red shapes started to look like strawberries ;-)

My masterpiece! I made a felt strawberry envelope! I was super excited about this, since it pretty much turned out like the picture in my head. Take into account this was my first time using felt, I gave myself a small pat on the back. It took quite some time to stitch it all together (how do other people make this seem so easy?), but I discovered two major benefits of felt as an envelope: 1) it's super light! So no worries about sending heavy creative snailmail. This whole package, including letter and bits and pieces weighed 42 grams. And 2) it survived its journey very well. Ingrid already wrote a blogpost about it, the envelope made it in one piece.

Now let's all dig into the last strawberries of this summer, enjoy!

Love,
Anne

OUTGOING MAIL: Birthday booklet for Silvia

Something TERRIBLE happened to me last week. Somehow, I forgot my penpal Sylvia's birthday! To make up for it, I made her a happy birthday booklet in pink and teal. Let's have a look!

So, I took a piece A4 cardstock with a teal patterned outside and a blank inside. I folded the paper in half widthwise, there we have our booklet. I decorated the inside of the booklet with paper; on the left page I used light blue blank paper, on the right page I used patterned Flying Tiger paper. I made a pocket from plain white paper for the left page, to put some gifts in, and I stuck a transparent bag for my letter onto the right page.

For my letter, I used a page from a Flow notebook that came with the magazine once. It's naturel colored checked paper, the thin lines are pink. I used pink and teal washi from HEMA to make the writing sheet super happy, and I wrote my letter with a teal fineliner.

A close up look of the way I used the washi tape. And proof of my terrible mistake: writing my penpal a day after her birthday.

As mentioned, on the left page I made a little pocket for gifts. Some time ago, I received gorgeous polaroid-like cards, and those pictures are definitely birthday-worthy! I also made Silvia some personalized address labels on my typewriter.

I went a little overboard with the decorations. Like I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have a thing for bunting. So I made a bunting with Silvia's name and stuck it from one side of the booklet to the other with pink washi tape.

Just to sum up some other things I used for decorating the inside of the booklet: I made fringe out of paper I gave rainbow colors with watercolor paint, there's an overload of washi tape (but hey, what's new about that), some kraft paper flowers, watercolor heart-shaped stickers and a light pink label with an awesome birthday quote: "Keep calm and be crazy, laugh and live it up, because this is the oldest you've been and the youngest you'll ever be."

I kept the outside a little less over the top: just two watercolor heart-shaped stickers and a ribbon. Because, you know, ribbons are just awesome. I reinforced the fold of the booklet with pink polkadot fabric tape.

As I said, ribbons are awesomeballs.

Hope you liked this peek into the booklet I sent Sylvia!

Love,
Anne

OUTGOING MAIL: Happy snailmail folder

On Pinterest and several Instagram accounts I came across some pictures of beautiful folders to send to your penpals. The basic concept is super easy, and the result is just too cute to send. So I decided to give it a try, and one week ago I sent my first snailmail folder off to my Aussie penpal Zoe.

Well, as mentioned, the basic idea is pretty simple! I used a piece of A4 patterned cardstock, and because the paper was pretty thick, I rilled the lines I wanted to fold first. That way, it's easier to fold neatly. I folded the paper in half widthwise and made a lengthwise fold to create a pocket (I made it so that it fitted a regular C5 envelope, but you can size it any way you like). I put washi tape around all the edges for decoration and a little reinforcement. I used the left side of the folder for some goodies, and the right side to put my letter in. For the letter, I used some recycled paper which I decorated with, of course, washi tape from, of course, HEMA.

I answered Zoe's mailtag questions from her last letter, and added a new mailtag. Both on small washi-decorated red writing sheets, written on my typewriter.

In the left side of the pocket I put some goodies in the same colortheme as the folder and decorations. With her last letter, Zoe sent me a very cute small envelope with geometrical bits and pieces on it. I thought it really fitted the theme of my folder, so I decided to reuse it: I put some washi samples and neon highlight stickers in it. Another gift I added is a small envelope I folded from Flow magazine paper. 

I kept the decoration of the folder easy and simple: from scraps of the same paper as the folder I punched some decorations and glued them on the pocket and on the outside of the letter.

I like to add bunting wherever I can, it gives an instant happy and festive look! Easy does the trick: I cut some triangles, glued them into the folder and with my white Signo Uni-ball pen I drew a line. 

I wrapped up the folder with some neutral colored baker's twine and a grey button, I thought it didn't need much more. I like the result, I hope Zoe does too!

I am definitely going to create more of these folders, it's such an easy and fun way to send mail around the world! You can go as crazy as you like with the decorations, the possibilities with this are endless. 

Love,

Anne